Teufel Hunden

On a warm morning in early June 1918, somewhere amid the rolling farmland and wooded clearings of northern France, a handful of American Marines fixed bayonets, whispered prayers, and stepped into the wheat. It was June 6, 1918 and the woods they faced were called Belleau. Before sunset that day, more United States Marines would be killed or wounded than had fallen in every battle of the Corps’ previous 143-year history combined. That stretch of land would soon become sacred ground, known not just to historians and veterans but to anyone who believes liberty is bought with blood.